Major Tod's Account of Greek, Parthian, and Hindu Medals. 319 



The country of Bactria lias always been extolled, both by ancient and 

 modern travellers, as highly fertile* and productive; and, to its natural 

 riches, is properly ascribed the power which the revolted princes so rapidly 

 acquired. 



That portion of the kingdom of Cabul, which embraces the provinces of 

 Balk'h and Khorassan, according to the boundaries assigned by the best 

 authorities.t with the tract north of the Oxus to the Sirr,1: forming a part 

 of the modern kingdom of Bokhara, in Turkistan§, constituted the kingdom, 

 of Theodotus. 



The more celebrated, and far more extended dynasty of the Parthian 

 Arsacidac, which first contributed to aggrandize, and afterwards curtailed the 

 Bactrian power, rose into eminence about the same period. 



The first Arsaces was a Bactrian by birth, and with his brother Tiridates 

 had opposed the ambitious designs of Theodotus ; but being unsuccessful, 

 fled to the governor of Parthia,ll by whom being treated with indignity, he 

 raised troops, expelled him, and following the example of Theodotus, 

 declared himself independent. Three years after he was succeeded by his 

 brother Tiridates, who bears on his medals the title of " Arsaces^ the 

 Great, King of Kings." That he was much indebted to the Greeks of 

 Bactria, we may judge from the epithet his medals and those of his successor 

 bear, of Philhellenos. His friendship for the Greeks can only be understood 

 towards the Bactrian Greeks; for he had scarcely been two years on the 

 throne, when Seleucus** Callinicus, having made peace with the Egyptian 

 monarch, left Syria with a large army to recover Parthia; anci the " Great 

 King " was obliged to fly to his Scythic brethren, the Getic Sacce of the 

 Jaxartes ; till a rupture between the brothers, Seleucus and Antiochus, gave 



* " Elle est vaste, et produit de tout, excepte des olives." — Strabon, liv. xi. 



f See map to Elphinstone's Cabul. 



J For more minute boundaries, Strabo may be consulted. 



$ Or Tocharistan, the abode of the Tachari, one of the races mentioned by .Strabo, as aiding 

 to overturn the Bactrian kingdom. In Tachari we find the origin of the word Turk : the Usbeck 

 Tartars, or Turks, are still in the old abodes of the Tachari ; the name is also found, by the 

 Chinese and Tartar historians, in the words Tak-i-uk. — See De Guignes. 



II Lewis, Parthian Empire. Ancient authorities differ in the name of this governor on the 

 part of Antiochus Theos: by one he is named Agathocles, and by another Phericlcs. 



f See Vaillant. 



*• Lewis, Partliiun Empire, quoting Justin, lib. xxvii. and xli. 



